Cubswin11

I bet all the decent FA are staying home. This is probably for fringe guys. This is all so dumb. Martinez has 5/125 on the table and Darvish has multiple 5 year, 9 figure deals and is holding up the whole pitching market. I have a real hard time feeling bad for the players or taking their side here.

The BIG horsefeathering sucks this year and Bates-Diop turning in to arguably the best player in the conference doesn’t hurt.

Did we fall in a time warp back to November?!?

Puig’s agency fired him over “behavior issues” and the Dodgers seem to know about whatever it was and aren’t taking any action. That seems odd.

Would that deal really be any more available than a Greink/Price deal he had his sights on? I’d assume he’d want a $30-40 mil deal in that case, who’s doing that? Most teams that are in on him want him for their current 3+ year window. The only teams that could or would offer the one year deal would be a rebuilding team like the Padres maybe to flip him at the deadline and then you’re paying $15-20 million for a prospect?

6/130 would be a $21.7M AAV. That's actually better for the Cubs than 5/125. I doubt that's the difference between the two camps. It could be that we are at 5/110 or something and he’s at 6/160. The 5/125 was the predicted deal by Nightengale. But overall I agree go to a 6th year at 130-140 to keep the aav down a bit rather than 5/125.

I regret nothing. I’d trade Jorge Soler 2.0 for Jon Lester 2.0 (at a discounted, controlled rate) every time

Didn’t Happ actually grade out decently there last year (better than Almora, iirc)? he did, but i'm not buying into him as a plus CF. Fair enough, I’m also not buying Almora being a negative defensive CF. I think between the 2 we will grade positively (even if just nominally).

Well yeah, Schwarber is going to be so bad in the least important defensive position that he's going to bring down the above average defense we have at C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CF, and RF. That's just horsefeathering science. where is our above average defense in CF coming from? (obviously agree with the gist of the post) Didn’t Happ actually grade out decently there last year (better than Almora, iirc)?

It’s Nightengale and not all that new of news but he thinks we end up with Darvish for 5/125 and he wants something like 6/130 that Cueto got. I mean I know Theo might just have his principles and know he’s really only bidding against himself but just give him the exact Cueto deal and add ~$10 million and be done with this horsefeathers.

Depending on your definition, Clark is the first former player to head the MLBPA, the only other possibility is when Bob Feller was President of The American Baseball Guild, which was pre-unionization. It's been labor lawyers running the show for the 55 years between Feller and Clark. I didn't know that on the MLB side, put kinda reinforces the point that now that there isn't a qualified guy running it there's some major contention. I know the NBA has been doing it with a player going back to at least the late 2000s or early 2010s.

I saw a kinda stupid conspiracy theory but also kinda believe because these are petty billionaire owners and this is mostly their hobby. It was that the Patriots, specifically Kraft and Belichick, still absolutely loathe the Colts from their role in the deflate-gate stuff and this was a pre-planned, coordinated thing to horsefeathers with the Colts and that they told McDaniels to play along and screw with them with no intention to ever take the job and he'd get a extension/raise for doing it.

Another thing in all this that amazes me, and it's not just MLB it's all the major sports, is that I don't get why former players lead the union (in more than a figurehead role). They are negotiating against billionaire owners and leagues who have guys with Ivy League MBA and Law degrees going up against them, it's a unbalanced negotiating table form the start just from a pure intellectual perspective. I'm sure it's not just Tony Clark up against a boardroom full of Owner and League lawyers and I'm sure he has assistance from people with the requisite skill sets but in all league it seems like the main player repping them has major say in the negotiations (obviously the players need a voice at the table and they can handle some things) but it really seems like they should have a former agent/someone with a MBA/Law Degree being their leader and head of things and not a former player. I remember when the NBA had their lockout a few years ago Simmons wrote about this how it was ridiculous Derek Fisher (head of the union at the time) was the main guy negotiating for the players against a bunch of guys who's job it is full time to negotiate deals for the owners/league.

Probably not much. I read with the off days early on and ability to go a 4-man that he only misses like 3-4 starts if he only is out those 10-12 weeks

Based on how he pitched last year I’m not entirely certain he ever sobered up from the 2016 WS parade and celebrations.

I'm all for players trying to get the most money but it's hard to buy in to collusion or teams holding prices down when you hear this, from Rosenthal's article he just posted... I'm sure he wants more and thought he'd get more but 5/125 seems quite reasonably fair for a player like Martinez all things considered (age, DH only, power not being as premium with juiced balls/swing changes/whatever, etc.).

Cavs should just trade LeBron. Agree, like I said a few posts up... If he won't guarantee he's staying tell him to give you a list of 2-5 teams he'd waive his NTC to go to, there isn't a move out there to help them this year and it's not worth trading the Brooklyn pick for like Kemba Walker if he won't guarantee he's staying. There's also this... What a mess

http://i.imgur.com/Rm9uhP0.gif

The Cavs just blew a 21 point lead to the Magic and lost by almost 20. I'm rather enjoying this Lebron/Cleveland collapse

Yeah, like I said not worth losing sleep over, we already are going to have a top ~5 bullpen in MLB. But Oh was really dominant in 2016 and his velo was the same 2016 vs 17 so the pure stuff seems to still be there, maybe with some Hickey tweaking he could regain that. It's also probably a little meatbally but I like that he had closer experience to give us another option there as well. He also only signed for 1 year vs 2 for Duensing who I worry last year was an outlier plus he lost the pitching coach that helped him get there (I know Hickey > Bosio but Bosio still helped turn Duensing in to what he was last year). I don't think we really need lefties or righties (Monty/Wilson is enough plus we have reverse split guys or guys who are just as good lefty vs righty), we just need good options at this point and I think Oh was a better option. Oh vs lefties in 2016 was .173/.234/.221, when he's right he's elite. Looking in to Oh's numbers last year he gave up a lot more fly balls (at expense of ground balls, nearly a 20% swing from 16 vs 17) and his HR rate spiked, but his hard and medium contact rates went way down and his soft contact went way up, he could have been a casualty of the juiced balls. Plus he doesn't really walk anyone (29th overall in BB/9 for qualified RPs last year). Again, whatever but I kinda wish we got him for that pittance of a contract (basically could've signed him for what we'll be paying Grimm and just could've non-tendered Grimm) since there's some bounce back potential and a high ceiling if it's met (he was 5th in RP fWAR in 2016). I've posted this before, but Sergio Romo was pretty great in the second half after working with Hickey. If he could be had on a short, cheap deal, I'd love to bring him in. Particularly if he could be had on an NRI. I could get behind this, especially as a NRI. Another name I'd throw out in a similar fashion if he could be had cheap/NRI would be Bud Norris, out of the bullpen he can hit mid-high 90s and the stuff has always been good for Hickey to play with who knows. He also can be an emergency/spot starter if needed.

I wonder if that's an indicator of Luck's health (or lack of)?

Other than the Yankees (just assuming they project for something ridiculous, haven't seen their Zips) does Zips project our bullpen for the most WAR in MLB?

Yeah, like I said not worth losing sleep over, we already are going to have a top ~5 bullpen in MLB. But Oh was really dominant in 2016 and his velo was the same 2016 vs 17 so the pure stuff seems to still be there, maybe with some Hickey tweaking he could regain that. It's also probably a little meatbally but I like that he had closer experience to give us another option there as well. He also only signed for 1 year vs 2 for Duensing who I worry last year was an outlier plus he lost the pitching coach that helped him get there (I know Hickey > Bosio but Bosio still helped turn Duensing in to what he was last year). I don't think we really need lefties or righties (Monty/Wilson is enough plus we have reverse split guys or guys who are just as good lefty vs righty), we just need good options at this point and I think Oh was a better option. Oh vs lefties in 2016 was .173/.234/.221, when he's right he's elite. Looking in to Oh's numbers last year he gave up a lot more fly balls (at expense of ground balls, nearly a 20% swing from 16 vs 17) and his HR rate spiked, but his hard and medium contact rates went way down and his soft contact went way up, he could have been a casualty of the juiced balls. Plus he doesn't really walk anyone (29th overall in BB/9 for qualified RPs last year). Again, whatever but I kinda wish we got him for that pittance of a contract (basically could've signed him for what we'll be paying Grimm and just could've non-tendered Grimm) since there's some bounce back potential and a high ceiling if it's met (he was 5th in RP fWAR in 2016).

I think I would've preferred this to signing Duensing or even as a final piece. Not going to lose sleep over it, but would've liked to add him for this price. [tweet] [/tweet]

He had 19 wins (tied for most in his career) and had the lowest ERA in any season for his career in 2016. Easily the best season of his career, morons!